Beware humans! Robot can manipulate your emotions

Aug 07, 2018, 8:05 AM EDT

(Source: Jiuguang Wang/flickr)

An experiment carried out in the garb of improving the intelligence of a humanoid robot eventually threw up a fascinating finding – humans do get emotionally manipulated by robots when they least expect it.

When German researchers steered a group of volunteers to socialize with Nao, an interactive humanoid robot, eventually asking them to switch the machine off, the participants displayed a reluctance in doing the same when the robot begged them to not turn it off, notes Futurism.

A sense of empathy for the begging robot or the fear that the device may develop a snag kept a small fraction of volunteers from shutting them down, reflecting how humans are susceptible to emotional manipulation by such entities, writes The Quint.